Sticky: FATCA Christmas Letter to Jim Flaherty

The Honourable James Flaherty, P.C. M.P.
Minister of Finance
House of Commons,
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Dear Minister Flaherty:

You and your Conservative colleagues have again confirmed Santa’s Canadian citizenship. But, do you know the United States is also claiming Santa as theirs?!? They insist he lives in Alaska—despite his red and white suit and his HOH OHO postal code in Canada’s North Pole.

This is typical of the Americans. They are determined to turn as many people in the world as they can into “US persons.” So they snoop around like kids before Christmas, trying to find loot for U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service.

Don’t let the Americans claim Santa. Don’t let them claim up to one million other Canadians and their families either.

We are as Canadian as Santa. Perhaps even more so because many of us swore an Oath of Allegiance to Canada.

So, I’m sending you this holiday letter to tell you what is on our Christmas wish list (see attached).

We hope you will give us a joyous Christmas by granting our holiday wishes. If you do, we wish you and your colleagues a very Merry Christmas.

If you don’t, you will subject us to a third Christmas with the IRS Grinch and FATCA Monster threatening to run away with our private financial information on our Canadian earned, saved, invested and taxed money. In that case, we can only wish you a lump of coal in your stocking.

We have been very, very good Canadians. Please don’t be naughty and give away our rights to a foreign government.

Lynne Swanson
Maple Sandbox
(e-mail address was provided)

HERE IS THE WISH LIST THAT WAS ATTACHED:

1. Protection from the IRS Grinch who is threatening our honest lives in Canada with his

We Wish For Protection from IRS Grinch and FATCA Monster

partner the FATCA Monster.

2. An assurance from you that all Canadian citizens have the same rights regardless of where they were born.

3. A statement from you that Canadian banks must follow Canadian laws.

4. A promise from you that Canadian banking, privacy and human rights laws will not be changed for a foreign government.

5. Respect from you and the Conservative government for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

6. A reply to the Open Letter that Maple Sandbox and Isaac Brock Society sent to you exactly one month before Christmas asking a simple question: Do all Canadians have the same rights under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

7. A reply to Order Paper Questions from Liberal MPs Ted Hsu and Scott Brison.

8. Assertion of Canadian sovereignty over Canadian laws and Santa’s home in the Arctic.

9. An announcement that Canada says “NO” to a FATCA IGA that compromises our rights.

Unlike the IRS, Revenue Canada does not pursue its citizens to the end of the earth for committing no other transgression than simply being born in Canada. We do not demand to know about his American bank accounts. We do not reach across American borders and classify American accounts held by American citizens and residents as “offshore accounts” that we must know about. We do not demand to know about any of his income unless he happens to have income from Canadian sources (on which there would be withholding tax, and which everybody, including the United States, does anyway).

An interesting excerpt from the link:

Further, he said, “There was no reason to retain counsel to analyze Canadian law, because it wasn’t relevant to anything I was doing.”

Bloody hell!!!!!! That’s basically what most Canadian/American dual nationals living in Canada think about American law. Why should American law be of any damn relevance to us if we live, work, and pay taxes in Canada?

Oh yes….I forgot. When Congress passes a law like FATCA, and media-anointed Messiah in the White House signs it, the laws of the United States of Arrogance are supposed apply to the whole world.

@Schubert, hey, I admitted it was a tall order! Yes, extremely wishful thinking, but I’m just SOOOOOO tired of all the political BS and double-talk. I also wonder if anyone can remain an ethical, rational person once elected, surrounded, separated and cushioned by political thinking.

Superb letter and wish list, Lynne! I’ll be interested in whether you get a reply from Flaherty.

Also Outraged’s wish list is superb, if rather wishful thinking alas, notably on points 1-4. I’d vote for any party that actually honoured all four points once in power, but I begin to despair that any party in any country will ever do that. I haven’t seen it yet, at any level of government, with a couple of notable exceptions by a literal handful of politicians in my distant past.

I am going to take the liberty of copying those four points from Outraged and emailing them under my own name to my federal MP, my provincial MPP, and my city councillor. I think those are important messages that all elected politicians need to get, quite apart from FATCA.

Best wishes to all of you for the holiday season, however and whenever you celebrate it!

@Blaze, couldn’t resist – here’s my wish list
Dear Santa,
I’m afraid I’ve got a tall order for you this year, and I’d be grateful for anything you can do to make my wishes come true.
What I’d really, really like is:
1. Politicians who think about what’s best for the people, not best for themselves.
2. Thorough research, and publication, of all proposals and changes to Canadian law regarding any and all implications and impacts.
3. For all political and personal agendas to be transparent and included in all agreements and laws.
4. That when politicians open their mouths, what comes out is the full truth and only the truth, not waffling, double-speak, or lies (you may need to enlist Harry Potter for this one).
5. To be recognized as a loyal Canadian citizen – and not a dual anything.
6. To be confident that no foreign government can take my hard-earned money away from me.
7. A can of maple syrup in the stocking of any person who had anything to do with the drafting, design and implementation of FATCA – an OPEN can. (You may need a gremlin instead of an elf.)
8. To spend time on things like perfecting my recipe for pecan lace cookies instead of thinking and writing about FATCA.
9. Peace of mind for all the good people at Isaac Brock Society and Maple Sandbox.
10. To NEVER, NEVER, NEVER have to say “FATCA” again.